Wharton Launches "Business in the Metaverse Economy" Executive Education Online Certificate Program, Becoming First Ivy League Business School to Launch a Program on the Emerging Technology

PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aresty Institute of Executive Education at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is proud to announce the launch of its newest online program, Business in the Metaverse Economy. Developed in collaboration with Prysm Group, a leading economic consulting firm specializing in emerging technologies, this six-week Wharton certificate program is designed for business and technology professionals seeking to learn about the associated technologies, the economic and technological elements that will drive its development, and how firms and creators can gain value through the metaverse in the years to come. Through immersion activities, program participants will also benefit from firsthand use of metaverse technology for an interactive learning experience. With the launch of this course, Wharton becomes the first Ivy League business school to launch a program on the topic of metaverse technology.

Powered by a range of emerging technologies including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), research analysts estimate the metaverse economy to be a momentous opportunity on the horizon, poised to become a $13 trillion market by 2030. In a survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, senior executives cite their top three concerns related to incorporating the metaverse into their company's operations as uncertain return on investment, inability to design a suitable business model, and the lack of managerial capability to implement a related strategy into their business. In response to such challenges, Wharton Executive Education has designed this program to provide business leaders with the needed frameworks to develop models and strategies required to capture the trillions of value that will be generated in this emerging market.

With program highlights including six industry case studies and more than 50 program lecture videos featuring six Wharton faculty and a dozen industry experts, this course aims to allow students to align theory with practice and give them the tools necessary to engage deeply in a business context with the emerging technologies empowering the metaverse.

"We designed this program for business professionals and executives from a range of backgrounds, including finance, management, and tech," says the program's academic director, Professor Kevin Werbach of the Wharton School. When asked about the goals of the program, Professor Werbach says, "The metaverse is a significant and broad phenomenon that is still poorly understood. We hope to equip business leaders, consultants, and entrepreneurs with an understanding of the impending opportunities the metaverse brings, as well as the practical knowledge to build solutions of value."

With industry case-study topics ranging from how large, legacy enterprises can use metaverse technologies in both B2C and B2B settings to which tactics companies can employ to ensure customers engage with digital worlds safely and appropriately, Wharton's Business in the Metaverse Economy program takes an in-depth look at challenges that business leaders have gone through, discusses how they made their decisions, and explores essential lessons learned.

The goal of this asynchronous, online program is to educate business leaders at their own pace on how this general-purpose technology can be applied to their businesses and unlock value for the global economy.

According to Guido Molinari, managing partner at Prysm Group, "Having spent the last five years providing economic consulting services to a broad range of Fortune 500 companies engaged in cutting-edge projects seeking to apply emerging technologies to their existing businesses, it is a pleasure to be a part of this program and to be able to share many of the frameworks and models that have contributed to the early successes of our clients." He continues, "From folks interested in learning how the metaverse is going to be the new evolution of the mobile internet to those looking to develop their own solutions leveraging the unique opportunities the metaverse brings to engage with customers in novel ways, this program focuses on the business value this mix of emerging technologies is going to deliver to companies globally."

With the support of Prysm Group and guest speakers from Adobe, Animoca Brands, Hellenic Parliament, Magic Leap, R/GA, RLY Network, Second Life, Snap, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Unity, Wharton Executive Education's Business in the Metaverse Economy program leverages years of development and deployment and delivers world-class learning solutions through practical case studies and industry best practices to educate the global business community.

The Business in the Metaverse Economy program is now open for limited enrollment for its first cohort, which begins on September 12, 2022. To register or receive more information on the program, visit https://www.web3.wharton.upenn.edu/metaverse.

Founded in 1881 as the world's first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 13,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education's individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. For more information, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.

Prysm Group is an economic consulting and executive education firm led by Harvard-trained PhD economists specializing in emerging technologies. Utilizing the tools of game theory, contract theory, market design, social choice, and monetary economics, Prysm Group advises blockchain, digital assets, and metaverse projects from startups to Fortune 500s on incentive design, token economics, monetization, and governance topics. Prysm Group has worked with leading business schools including Columbia Business School, MIT Sloan, and the Wharton School to develop executive education programs on emerging technologies. To learn more about Prysm Group, visit www.prysmgroup.io.

For media inquiries, contact [email protected] and [email protected]

SOURCE The Aresty Institute of Executive Education at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania